Facebook removes photographer's photos of births, breastfeeding

2011-01-07T21:03:50Z

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (CNN) - Facebook removed an Iowa woman's pictures of breast feeding and birth and disabled her account Wednesday, stating she had violated the terms of use set by the social networking site.

The woman is now calling it censorship and a violation of rights.

Laura Eckert, a photographer and a mother, said she uses Facebook in all aspects of her life and is alarmed by these actions.

"I had a Facebook warning telling me that a photo that I had posted did not meet their terms of use," Eckert said. "And when I logged in, it said my account was disabled."

Eckert is a birth and maternity photographer. She regularly posts pictures of women breast feeding, giving birth and at other stages of their pregnancy.

"I am assuming that it would have come down to the maternity or the birth photos that would have offended Facebook," Eckert said.

Eckert said she is careful when posting photos, saying that she even takes time to crop some of them to meet Facebook's policies.

Eckert thinks monitoring her site is a waste of Facebook's time.

"There's so many things that they should be taking off, and instead, they're kind of wasting their time on stuff that is art," Eckert said. "It is beautiful stuff. There's nothing on there that I wouldn't let my own children see."

Eckert, a mother of three, is fighting back.

Her supporters have even started their own Facebook page titled, "Restore Laura Eckert's Account."

"They're a big enough entity now that they can kind of do what they want, and I think they're going to find out that they're going to run up against people that aren't just going to get walked on."

Facebook said it doesn't comment on actions taken against its users. Facebook did say it prohibits posting nude photos on the site.